Ming China, and Its Lessons for Trump’s Trade War
If you want America to be great again, a retreat into isolationism is the worst path to follow. Just look at history.
Isolationism put an end to China’s golden age.
Photographer: Heritage Images/Hulton Fine Art Collection/Getty Images
From a certain angle, President Donald Trump's tariff blitz looks like nothing so much as a chronic case of China envy.
Look at the losers’ list announced from the White House Rose Garden Wednesday in the season finale of this all-too-real reality show: Every sign points toward a desire to Make America China Again, from the obsession with trade deficits to the promise to bring back manufacturing jobs from abroad. Think of a continent-sized economy with a persistent trade surplus and a booming manufacturing sector, and the most obvious candidate is China, Trump’s most consistent bogeyman since he announced his first presidential run nearly a decade ago.